The Occult
by RedenedMistake
Summary: Five young dogs (Atori, Chep, Mosaqui, Tapak, Sorrek) must team together and work hard to destroy a massive tsunami that threatens their hometown. But is it just a tsunami? Or is it a certain dog coming back to take revenge on what hadn't been fair? As new dangers unfold as they travel, the dogs must learn there own ways of survival and telling apart from friend... or foe?
1. Prologue

Rain splashed down on the roof of the cave above, flattening the grass outside. Wind tugging at the leaves, many of them falling free from the tall trees that loomed over into the dark gray sky. Water splashed from above the tall cliff that the cave sat upon, slowly leaking over the edge. It was flooding again, but not at all like last time. It was reaching over the edge, pooling up near the cave and reaching until it stopped at a young pup's paws. She was now cornered, with no way to get out. She couldn't swim, and the water was already blocking the entrance to her only way out.

"Dad?" She called out, getting as close to the entrance as possible until the water reached to her paws. "Mom?"  
Her mother and father had gone out to hunt, but it had been taking them much longer than it usually did. They had been away for nearly half the day already!

The pup let out a tiny whimper, glancing back at the water pilling up at the cave entrance, there was no way out now.  
But she wasn't dumb, she knew how to get out, even if It might have to be a close call just to survive.

Crouching, she padded back to the end of the cave and began digging. Her tiny claws couldn't do much, but when it came to a life or death situation, it was all she had left to use. Unless, of course, she had to use her mouth to defend herself. But she couldn't possibly drink all that water, could she?

Looking back at the cave entrance, she considered changing her decision. The pool of water had expanded to her back paws, splashing up against them until they were soaked enough that they felt heavy on her back side. Looking down at the flood, her eyes began to water and dampen the fur around her eyes. There was no way out of here, she couldn't swim, and the cave was too far underground for her to dig under.

Collapsing onto ground, her fur had gotten splashed with the cold water tunneling into the cave. It was just as well though, by the time the water had reached her she would already be soaked anyways. Closing her eyes, she rested a paw over her nose and let out a whine. All she wanted was for her mom to be here, telling her stories and grooming her fur, lulling her to sleep and keeping her warm. Her father would be out hunting and bringing back a nice fresh fish for her to eat. But instead, she just got a flood and storm. Starving, cold, and scared. The pup had always imagined her life would end in a brave battle, her friends mourning her while the life slowly faded from her beautiful grass-green eyes.

The pup heard splashing in the water beside her, coming closer. She opened her eyes, waiting to see a beautiful starry-pelted wolf come to take her up to the sky where the rest go.

But instead, she saw her father, Jasam. His left side had been slashed from shoulder to leg, his dark gray pelt flattened and dripping from the rain.

"We need to get out of here." He huffed, grabbing his pup by the scruff and lifting her up off the ground. He darted out of the flooding cave, the pup's legs tucked close together as she limply swung from side to side over the splashing water. She didn't even have enough strength to keep her eyes open, the only thing keeping her awake was the water splashing at her feet as Jasam swam out and away from what once was their home. Looking back at it now, the pup could tell that she wouldn't be visiting it again anytime soon.

Once they got to solid ground, Jasam set her down and began to run again, flinching as a white stripe crashed down from the dark clouds. The pup had never quite been told what those things were, but all she knew was that she needed to stay away from them.

Struggling to keep up with her father, the pup began to run as fast as her short legs could take her, she felt that she wouldn't make it far though, her eyes were already heavy with the urge to sleep, and her stomach ached from resistance to eat since morning.

She eventually gave up and started into a trot to keep up with her father, her eyes beginning to close. She couldn't keep this up, not long enough to actually get wherever they were heading. Jasam had stopped to a trot as well, falling back and stopping beside his daughter.

"Hey, dad…?" The pup whimpered, looking up at him with her adoring green eyes. "Where's mom?"

Jasam hesitated to answer, staring straight ahead at the large cliff above. It was obvious they were heading up there, to hopefully escape the rising water.

"She's um…" He looked down at his paws and continued walking, his eyes clouding over. "Tsumari is gone…"

The pup instantly stopped walking, staring up at her father with her big round eyes again. "W-what… what happened to her?" She whimpered, her eyes watering with tears.

"She got shot…" Jasam responded with a sigh, glaring up at the sky with bared fangs. "By those damn things that some call humans!"

The pup flinched, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. She didn't like it when her father used foul words. "D-dad…?"

All her father did was huff and nose her along, forcing her to walk again. "Just come on, we need to get up to that cliff."

So the pup followed along, her tail dropped down between her damp legs as she walked. She let a sniffle escape her nose, her eyes watering again. She stopped for a moment, her father continued walking. The pup sighed and blinked the tears away, trying to be strong as she walked. She barely even noticed the rain splashing on her fur now, everything was just numb.

Catching up at her father, she tried to lighten the mood by admiring the view at the top of the tall cliff.

"Wow…" She exclaimed, looking down the cliff and at the shimmering water far below, ripples caused by the rain. The water had seemed to look like a rainbow in some spots, where it reflected the clouds in the sky that were finally beginning to open up. Sunlight shimmered through the clouds just like stripes, reaching down to the earth and giving the place a little color. It had been the first time she had seen it like this in two days, the whole earth beginning to lighten into a new world.

"It's so beautiful…" She smiled, slowly beginning to forget about her mother. "Is mom doing all this?" She asked, turning back to her father with a smile.

Jasam just chuckled and stared down at his pup for a few seconds, blinking up to the sky every now and then. "Do you… do you wish to join your mother?"

The pup's expression immediately changed, staring up at her father. "Dad… What do you mean? I don't wanna leave you!"

Jasam sighed, his ears flattening and his eyes clouding over with sorrow. The pup could tell that she had no other choice.

"I'm so sorry, dear. But I just can't take care of you anymore. I want you to be with your mother." Jasam whispered, nosing his pup closer to the edge of the cliff. She arched her back, black claws scraping against the cliff's edge. "Dad, no! Please, I don't wanna go!"

"Just remember that I will always love you. Tell your mother that I love her, too." And with that, Jasam gave one last thrust with his nose, sending the tiny pup off the edge.

The water below no longer looked like a rainbow to her, but it looked like a black wave of poison rushing up to grab her, and it was coming up fast.

It was clear that she would die drowning after all. But she never imagined that it would end like this...

**Authors note**

This is a story that I've been working on for little less than a year maybe? It also gets updated on DA every few months, but not often. So I hope you enjoy, and tell me what you think about it!~


	2. Chapter 1

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" A nervous voice sounded from below the dumpster, anxious to get out of this place and head back to the docks where he belonged.

A few moments of silence passed until what sounded like paper began to rustle inside the dirty green object, a few wads of crumpled paper tossed over the side. A pair of white paws appeared over the edge, followed by a set of welcoming bright blue eyes. The eyes belonged to a skinny Australian Shepherd, who soon revealed his face. And at the end of his muzzle hung two silver shiny fish, it was obvious they had both been recently caught. Letting them drop to the cold cemented ground below, he used his front pillars to heave himself up and over the edge of the stained dumpster. A few small clanks sounded from the ground as the Shepherd's claws tapped to the cement to keep traction.

"Of course this is a good idea! If we don't get food now, who knows when the next time will be until we get fed on the docks?" He snorted, nudging one of the scaly fish towards the ginger hound.

"But Chep, even you should know how dangerous eating a raw fish could be." He responded, raising his brows in confusion as he examined the dead creature, poking and prodding at it.

Chep simply gave a suit-yourself shrug and began to peel away at strips of scaly skin, tossing them aside and nipping at the insides.  
The ginger hound rolled his eyes, grabbing the other fish and dragging it behind the dumpster to hide it. It was just like Chep to leave a mess everywhere, barely doing a thing to clean up evidence that they were there. Last time, Chep had tried stealing bread from the one of the campers by the lake, the people were using it to lure fish in so that they had a better chance of catching them, even though Lake Utali didn't allow fishing. Chep had taken the bread and hid under the bridge that lead out to the boats. There wasn't much room, but there was a spot below the docks where the beach had allowed him just enough room to hide, the side views where blocked off by the boards that held the bridge up. There, Chep had devoured the whole bag of bread and got sick within the next few days, it turned out that the people had soaked the food in a chemical that attracted the fish, drawing them closer. The sudden sickness of the Ausie led the humans to suspect that he had eaten something raw like a fish. Once they found out he had gotten to the bread, they forced him to stay in one of the campers belonging to the workers at the docks for about a week. Once he finally got out, Chep never stopped complaining that the food inside there was gross.

Even now it was a similar problem, only this time it actually was a raw fish.

"Hey, Tapak, are you just going to stand there or are you coming back to the docks with me?" Chep asked, licking his maw free from the blood of the scaly fish, looking back at Tapak as he began to trot away from the dumpster.

"Over here!" A man huffed through the window of his red semi-looking truck. It had stretched at least 65 feet, a black plastic tube pumped into the side of a huge U-Shaped white figure strapped onto the back of the truck. Behind it, from the forest, followed many trucks that had similar features, but each were carrying a different contraption behind them. The roaring of the engines grew stronger as they neared the lake. The last few people helped to strap the remaining boats in the water back onto the carrier of their cars. It was a simple process, all you had to do was just latch it on and drive away up on the ramp. But mind you, this lake was different. It was more of a gorge, some called it. There was no ramp, but instead it contained of a muddy pathway back up onto the parking lot. The mud was trailed across the streets, meaning that they would have to be cleaned often. But this hadn't always been a public lake, it used to be very private and unknown. Over the many years it had existed, people starting showing up and boating, or taking their children out to swim. People demanded that workers make it easier to get their boats out of the water, not being any owners of the lake, they had just dug a simple pathway from the lake and built a parking lot right next to it. They didn't figure that the lake would become very popular at all, so they didn't think much of how it would destroy the streets with mud.

Now, cars had just gotten used to using the hand-made ramp to bring their boats up. And as the last few disappeared into the forest, the bigger trucks had began to back into the water, using the ramp to guide them down. People rushed over to help untangle the large black tubes, each man taking a section of it and slowly lowering it into the water.

"Jackson!" One of the men in the trucks shouted. As a response, a skinny pale man looked up at him. Despite his tall height, he still had to look up to spot the bulky figure yelling at him. "Go scout the area around the lake, make sure everyone is out of the water before we start."

Jackson gave a nod and sprinted off to search the lake for any boats, hovering his hand above his eyes to avoid the sun catching him off guard.

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" An unsure voice whispered from below the window of the semi.

The man looked down, raising an eyebrow at the skinny worker, blinded by the gleam of his glasses. "We might as well give it a shot. The less water in Florida, the more we can drain down the power of this storm." Proving a point, the man below sighed and stared at the glistening water, his gaze seemed to have been lost in thought.

"Yeah, I guess your right…" He was obviously thinking of his family. He had a beautiful daughter and wife. He was looking forward to seeing them when he got home. But telling them about the deadly storm heading their way wasn't exactly the cheerful moment he was hoping for. Most families didn't know about it yet, the tornado-looking storm that rises from the water. Nobody really knew what it was, it had only happened a few times recently. This one, however, was very deadly. People would be dying when this storm hit, if not the whole of Florida, or the world. No, he was worrying too much. It was only Florida. Only Florida would be torn apart… All the other happy families would be eating dinner, going to sleep, playing with their pets, anything, while the people around him would be torn apart, everyone, if anyone, mourning over lost friends or family.

"Is he alright?" A voice called, eyes staring at the man beside the truck. The worker looked up, taking a glance at the eyes that had just been watching his every movement. He had been so lost in thought that he didn't realize he was nearly shaking in anger.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He responded barely above a whisper, rubbing his sunburned arm to hide the embarrassment.

As Jackson rounded the corner again, he gave a thumbs up to the driver, who's hairy arm was still hanging from the window. Gritting his teeth, the man simply pushed a button by the wheel and started backing up again. Everyone moved away from the truck, going back to their normal jobs to make this easier.

A loud vacuum-like sound emitted from the truck, ripples in the water formed around the end of the tube in the water as it started up. Soon enough, water began flushing from the tube and into the back of the truck, caught by the huge U-shaped container strapped onto the holders.

As other semi-trucks began to lower the tubes, soon the water level had begun to slowly go down inch by inch, the weeds that had been growing from the bottom of the lake had started poking through the tops.

"We wont accomplish this." A bulky man sighed, sitting on a bench that overlooked the docks. He wasn't talking about the draining of the lake. But instead, surviving this terrible storm.

"How far did we walk already?" Tapak moaned, trotting behind the Shepherd. Chep simply raised a brow and smiled.

"Don't blame me, you're the one that wanted to get out more!" He pointed out, picking up the pace. He did this intentionally, knowing that Tapak's legs were too short and worn out to keep this up much longer. Rounding a corner, he heard a slight whine from the smaller dog.

"Chep, slow down. My legs hurt enough already!"

The shepherd did exactly the opposite, picking up the pace again. He just wanted to get home and swim, maybe someone around the docks would throw a stick in the water and make him fetch it? He always loved doing that. Only, Tapak always said he didn't fetch it right. Unlike a normal dog who would swim out and bring the stick back, he swam out, grabbed the stick, then ran off somewhere to hide it. Don't get him wrong, he loved playing fetch, but he also liked making the people work harder. Usually one of the workers would keep having to go find another object to throw, and then they would get in trouble for playing with a dog rather then doing his job. And the whole time that the worker was being lectured, Chep would just sit there, cock his head to the right, and smile like he didn't have the slightest clue of what was going on.

But instead, rounding the corner that led to the docks, he realized that a day like that may never come again.

**Authors note**

**This story isn't going to be all about just the dogs, ofcourse! We're going to update on how the lake is doing every once and a while, too.**  
**Not much to say about this but hope you enjoyed! 83**


	3. Chapter 2

Chep just stood and watched, almost no emotion in his eyes. He was too shocked to show any signs of sadness or anger. What they were doing to his home was wrong, brutal, and just plain disturbing to watch. He had always thought that habitat destruction out in the wild was nothing, the point was just to find a new home. Well, this may not have been their habitat, but it was surely their home. And it was being destroyed.

The shepherd didn't even have to turn to Tapak to see that he was clearly on the urge of tears, because at this point, Chep was too.

"Chep…" Tapak whispered, his tail unraveling from it's natural curl. The watering eyes of a his considered brother stung the hound with sadness for him as his own eyes started to swell, too. "Chep, what are we gonna do?"

But the dog had no answer to his question and just sat and watched as his home was destroyed little by little. After all, there really was nothing he could do against the gigantic trucks. The tire tracks in the mud were from them, no doubt. The lake that had been unthreatened for years was now being taken away from them.

"This is your fault, Chep!" The cream-colored pup growled, tears dripping down his cheeks as he attempted to sink his teeth into Chep's shoulder. He didn't have the energy to, and he would never want to hurt the hound that been there for him his whole life. His fangs didn't even break through the skin, infact Chep wouln't have even felt it if it wasn't for his short fur. All he did was just nuzzle Tapak's forhead and lead him away from the dangerous machines and head for the mini forest close by. Atleast there they would be out of the heat and find shelter for the night.

"We gotta find a new home." Tapak sulked, pausing between weeps as the shepherd led him down the small hill that guided them towards their shelter.

"I know, Tapak." Chep sighed, forcing his paws to make one step infront of the other, each step painfully leading him away from what used to be their perfect home. They had everything they ever needed there. Food, water, a nice camper to stay in, and even the humans that had come by just to see them. It was obvious that there would be no more of that now. There would be no more fetching the stick when someone threw it into the water, there would be no more tasty food waiting for them when they returned from a long day of working to help the people supervise the boats in the water, or the people swimming by the shore. Though the dogs weren't much help, considering that they wouldn't be able to save anyone either way. What hurt the most was that painful fact that there would be nobody around at the place they were heading to. The good times at their old home were over, ahead of them lay a painful trail of rejection.

Leaves crunched under Chep's paws as they entered the nature filled forest. A smile twisted the ends of the shepherd's maw as he took a good look at the leafy palm trees all over. All of them seemed so healthy, and the leaves were so green and full of life! Dragonflies hovered above the tall lively plants, a buzzing of their flapping wings filling both of the dog's ears. A sigh escaped from Tapak's muzzle as he finally took in all the wonderful things about this place. This was about as well of a home as any, the droplets of water splashing onto the ground gave them a fine water supply, the berries on some of the bushes would also help with food. And as for shelter… well, as of now the whole of Florida was practically a huge rainforest! It wasn't far at all from the lake either, they could check up on their old home every once and awhile.

"I think this is our new home, Tapak." Chep called back, already exploring deeper into the maze. Tapak quickened his pace, catching up with the older hound. He must have gotten to caught up admiring the place that he didn't even notice that Chep had already left.  
"Don't you think we should wait until tomorrow to explore this place?" Tapak whined. "I would hate to get lost in here." The pup glanced up at the trees again as a bird shook one of the branches as it prepared to fly off into the clear sky above them. This place was a mystery, and they hadn't even been here for ten seconds.

"Relax." The black and brown shepherd smiled, still staring up at the sun beams shining down through the open spaces of such lively trees. "Where else are we gonna go, anyways?"

"Well… it's just that… we should atleast find a place to call 'home' in this forest." He explained, his eye catching sight of a den. But there was no need to tell Chep this, after all, Tapak didn't necessarily like this forest in the first place. Don't get him wrong, it really was a beautiful forest, but he didn't want to call it home just yet. But Chep wouldn't notice, anyways. He was already picking up the pace to get through as much of this as he could. If he was going to be spending the night in this unfamiliar place, he might as well get to know it first. He squinted as he walked under a blinding ray of light, the strength of it burning into his ocean-blue opticals.

"Chep… do you hear that?" A squeaky voice sounded from behind, having about as much fear in it as any young pup. It almost felt funny to think that, because it was actually Tapak who was the older one, even though sometimes the shepherd would slip up and call him his 'little brother'. But deciding not to say anything, he just stopped and waited until he eventually heard whatever he thought that Tapak was hearing with him. The delicate chirping of a bird had begun to fill his ears, the source coming from right above him on a lower branch, which means he could easily catch the feathery creature if he wanted to, but he didn't want to cause any trouble just the few minutes of being here.

"Yeah." Chep spun around, raising a brow at the other canine. "They're called birds."

"No." Tapak sighed, having a bit of an edge to his voice as he walked past the colorful shepherd. "That waterfall. Do you hear it?" The tan hound made his way towards the deep bushes that blocked their view of the place, slowly parting the branches with his paw. Finally getting through it, he immediately stopped to prevent himself from falling down a steep cliff. Looking down, he saw a massive pool of water quite a ways down, that had obviously formed from the furious roaring of the waterfall. It was far enough to cause a serious injury if he tried to jump. Hearing a gasp from behind, he noticed that Chep had followed him too. And of course, his face was just as shocked as he stared down.

"Well…" Tapak sighed, squinting his eyes to see the bottom of the cliff. It was just then that he noticed a cardboard box bobbing from side to side in the massive pool below, but it was much more than that, it was… moving. They didn't even have to say anything, it was obvious what they were both thinking. They would have to find a way down.

"Look." Chep called, seeming to have teleported down to the next layer of rocks, all covered with slippery green moss. This place was tropical no doubt, it was only a matter of time until one of them made a mistake that might force them to risk their life. "We can climb down these rocks here. They're steep, but barable."

Hesitating to respond, Tapak first glanced around to find an easier way, but knew that there was no other. Not in plain sight, anyways. Glancing back down, his lungs let out a gasp of air as he realized his claws were slipping off of the edge, causing gravity to send him tumbling down past the moss-covered boulders and falling to his doom into the never-ending waterfall. He didn't want to die drowning, it would be slow and painful, one of the worst ways to die. But before he even got the chance, he felt sharp fangs lock into his scruff. He winced at the pain, but barely even felt it, he was too focused on how close he was to dying not even a second ago, feeling his weight lifted onto the rock layers again. But glancing up at the dog who had just saved him, he realized that this wasn't even Chep. This was a stranger that he didn't even know! They obviously weren't the only ones in this forest, why hadn't they thought of that before? Focusing back on the hound again, he was shocked to find that this was the last expected breed to be here in Florida, one that shouldn't even be able to survive in this climate. Huskies were not fit for such a hot place like this one. Opening his maw to ask a question, he was cut off as the husky answered for him.

"The name's Mosaqui." He explained, glaring down at the smaller dog. "What's a dog like you doing out here?"

Tapak narrowed his lids, wanting to fire back with a smart comment, but just couldn't force the words out of his maw. Instead, he just slowly slinked away.

"Tapak!" The familiar voice called, coming closer as Tapak noticed the shepherd swiftly leaping his way down the steep rocks to get down to him. And as soon as he did, Tapak just buried himself in Chep's long fur and glared at the husky.

"Who are you?" Chep snarled at the similar-looking husky, the fur on his scruff standing on end. "If you hurt Tapak, I'll hurt you."

"Relax. My name is Mosaqui" He replied calmly, bowing his head to show peace. "I did nothing to hurt him, infact, I saved him. You should be thanking me rather than threatening."

Chep didn't show any signs of peace though, his eyes were narrowed and his fangs were bared like an attack-dog's. He was mostly the kind to joke and prance around, but he didn't trust very easily. It took a moment for him to calm down, but eventually responded.  
"My name's Chep." He glanced down at the tan hound hiding in his fur and gave a simple blink. "And this is Tapak."

Mosaqui nodded, glancing at the two for a moment with his near green eyes, they were mixed with an ocean blue and yet had a tint of a near turquoise. It wasn't very normal for his breed. "I see… and what are you guys doing in a place like this?"

"I could ask you the same question, husky." Chep retorted almost immediately, squinting his optics at the stranger.

Mosaqui snorted, a grin twisting the sides of his maw. He had obviously heard this many times before. "Nobody is used to seeing an arctic dog in Florida. Not very surprising." He rolled his eyes. "I am simply here because I can be, and I serve no purpose anywhere else, so I just –"

"Well what purpose do you serve here?" Chep interrupted, his expression becoming calmer, yet not trusting just yet.

"I'm here with my sister, of course." He explained quickly, glancing up at the edge of the cliff. "She's out hunting right now, but… she has this thing about knowing the latest news. She's told me that she sometimes sneaks out to find paper that gets dropped by the people who walk around by that dock about half a mile north, I cant remember the name of it, but I'm sure my sister knows."

Chep and Tapak exchanged glances, almost seeming to exchange plans through their mind. They had known each other long enough to just communicate from the expression in their eyes.

"We used to live at that dock… but the people have ruined it with those tanks. And the water is all drained." Chep explained, not daring to look at Mosaqui in the eye as he explained it. "Has you're sister told you anything about that?"

"If it's new information… no. It takes a little while for her to actually find an article about something, or find it on that screen that the people always watch." He explained, shifting his weight onto his haunches to sit. "But uh… if I ever see you around again, I'll tell you as much information as I've heard."

"Actually." Chep shuffled his paws, as if considering weather it would be a good idea or not. "We could really use someone like you to keep us updated on things. Would you and you're sister be interested in helping us find out a way to get our home back?"

The husky just sat there, staring at them as if they were crazy. Though the two hounds could tell by his eyes that he was actually considering this, they were worried about his answer. People like them could be a big help to their journey. It felt like months, maybe even years, until he finally responded.

"Before I answer this… follow me." The husky spoke, shifting his weight to all paws. "There's a place I want to show you."

**Authors note**

**Ah yes, so a new dog in Florida has joined the train! And it's... a husky? And what just does Mosaqui have to show these two? It could be a threat...**


End file.
